Why we invested in Agnikul Cosmos ?

Agnikul

?? Agnikul (Agnikul Cosmos Private Limited) is a new-age space-faring company building rockets to carry satellites weighing less than 100 to LEO (low earth orbits). Agnikul enables quick and affordable on-demand launch capabilities for small/microsatellites. Agnikul is like Uber for rockets and SpaceX/ISRO is like a train for rockets, carrying satellites to precise orbits.

Chennai-based company and incubated at IITM Research Park.

Top ET Innovator Award 2020.

Founders & Team

1. Srinath Ravichandran , Co-founder and CEO, Prev- Asst. Director, Market Risk Management at AIG, Senior Director, Portfolio Management/ Investments at Axa USA, MS in Financial Engineering from Columbia University, MS in Aerospace from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and UCLA, B.E in EEE from Anna University.
2. Moin SPM — Co-founder and COO, Ex-CEO of Gin Cosmetica, MBA in Aerospace management from the University of Newcastle, and B.E in Aeronautical engineering from Anna University.

Strong founders backed by advisors such as Perumal, ex-ISRO, Father of GSLV, and Prof. SR Chakravarthy, Head of NCRRD ( National Combustion labs) with an advisory board of 10 + ex-ISRO scientists.

How we found Agnikul ?

Our partner Vinod recognised something special in the startup and made multiple attempts to get them funding.

Vinod, in his role prior to Java, came across and met with Agnikul’s founders, Srinath Ravichandran, and Moin SPM, at an internal event. At this event, Agnikul’s founders first showcased a demo model of their 3D-printed engine for rockets. Vinod later had another opportunity to meet them at IIT Madras’s Research Park Demo Day, though convinced and impressed with Agnikul’s potential future he couldn’t proceed further.

After co-founding Java Capital, Vinod preemptively offered to invest in Agnikul irrespective of potential valuation in the next round. The conviction on the founders and their journey, and the relationship built over the years was key to pre-empt and make this investment in Agnikul in 2020 via Java Capital. Java Capital also invested again in the recent Series B round of Agnikul.

Founder-market fit

As we mentioned above, post his engineering Srinath went to Wall Street to work on finance after completing an MS in Financial engineering from Columbia University. However, he soon realized that his true calling was in the field of space exploration, not finance. So he did two masters in Aerospace, Aeronautical, and Astronautical Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a Certificate Program in Astronautical Engineering at UCLA, in parallel while working on Wall Street.

He co-founded Agnikul with his friend Moin who was running Gin Cosmetica a contract manufacturing firm for perfumes, after completing his MBA in Aerospace Science and Technology at the University of Newcastle.

They reached out to various professors across the country, seeking a chance to actualize their dream of building a rocket.

When Satya, a professor at IIT Madras, who was leading the National Center for Combustion Research and Development understood and responded to them, and as they say the rest is history

Agnikul team’s extensive and specialised education in aerospace and astronautical engineering, combined with their experience in finance and their determined pursuit of his space exploration dreams, makes him a uniquely fitting candidate for investment in the space sector.

This mix of space expertise and motivation made Agnikul an attractive investment for Vinod despite the risks. He saw the team as exceptional “skin in the game” founders tackling rocket science with both talent and conviction.

What is Agnikul?

• A Complete rocket engine as a single piece can be 3D printed in 72 hours, this enables the near on-demand launch of rockets possibly leading to customer-centric launches with preferred orbits
• Plug-and-play rocket configuration, modular engines are easier to build to customer-centric launch capabilities (think Uber for satellites)
• Mobile and rapidly erectable launchpads. No existing physical infrastructure is required at the spaceport

Why we invested

• Demand for small satellites for various purposes ranging from earth observation to communication (internet) has gone up. The cost to manufacture a small satellite has gone down significantly, there is significant demand for data gathering from space, dissemination, and analysis for applications ranging from hedge funds, weather forecasting, and entertainment to pollution monitoring.
• Launch capacities to put them in space are limited due to previous generations of rockets being primarily designed for large ( 3000–4000kg plus) payloads. Hence small satellites are treated as secondary payloads and don’t get slots (slots are booked 18+ months in advance) and preferred orbits. Even if they manage to get a slot, they don’t prefer orbits of their choice, primary payloads prefer to get orbits. This opens up a potential demand for rockets to launch sub-100 kg satellites. The demand for sub-100 kg satellites upto 2020 is ~100 ton
• The paradigm of traditional satellite companies — large, less cost-effective, backed by huge government investment is declining, leaving room for small-medium size companies, often spun off from universities to grow and prosper
• Almost 3900 nanosats and CubeSats launched to date, where 334 were launched in 2022 alone, while 2065 are expected to launch in 2023 to 2027.
• The space sector in India has been opened for private players and we believe this is a positive tail along with AtmaNirbhar Bharat.

Final Remaks

• ‘Data is the new OIL’ is often repeated quote in the last decade. As data changes every sphere of our lives, it’s no different when it comes to geospatial data/communication. This will require more satellites than ever before.
• The team behind Agnikul comes from a strong background in aerospace engineering and management and also with the backing of ISRO advisors which provides them with institutional knowledge on rocket launches coupled with access to $30M National combustion labs leads to frugal development and 1X the cost vs 25–30x for comparative developments across the world
• With regulatory tailwinds in India in favor of Agnikul and frugal engineering out of India, we believe this to be a strong opportunity to build a space-faring company out of India for the world.